Those taunting kids, never realizing that Parker and Spider-Man were one and the same, were awestruck by the reluctant superhero.

Young Colabuono was absolutely blown away.

Here at long last was a comic book hero to whom he could relate. Unlike a lot of the other costumed characters he`d seen leaping off the multi-hued pulp pages of his comic books, Parker seemed human, even possessed of foibles and occasional self-doubts.

Gary Colabuono remembered that magic moment recently, his voice taking on the reverential tones of a zealot recalling a long-ago religious conversion.

''They were giving me exactly what I wanted,'' he recollected. ''If you were a fat little kid who loved comics, you could really indentify with this nerdy teenager who became a superhero.''

Right about that time, thanks to the adventures of Spider-Man, Superman, the X-Men, the Hulk and others, Gary Colabuono himself was bitten, bitten by the comic book collecting bug. And while it never transformed him into a superhero, it did help him grow up to accomplish some pretty amazing feats of his own.

Like-ZOOM!-the way he soared to the number one spot as the Midwest`s largest comic retailer. And-POW!-the way his Moondog`s Inc. blasted its way from a single, out-of-the-way comic book shop to a chain of six high-profile stores selling not only comic books but the staples of pop culture as well. And-ZING!-the way he rang up nearly $3 million in sales in 1990 alone.

In the 14 years since opening his first Moondog`s comic book shop on a side street in Mt. Prospect, Colabuono, 40, has gone from a hobbyist and part- time comic book dealer to a hugely successful retailer. In the process, he`s also become an eloquent spokesman for the entire comic book industry.

''I really feel I`m a man on a mission,'' he said. ''A mission to give this true, original American art form the credibility and respect it deserves, not only as an entertainment medium but also as a means of informing and educating.''

Significantly, though, Colabuono hasn`t been content to limit his retail scope to comic books. His newest stores (at Randhurst Shopping Center, the Ford City Shopping Center, and at Clark and Belden in Chicago`s Lincoln Park neighborhood) are colorful, vibrant places light years removed from the dark and musty cubbyholes one might expect. At these stores, shoppers will find not only comic books but a cornucopia of merchandise celebrating American popular culture. T-shirts, games, posters, videos, books, trading cards, stuffed animals, superhero figurines, buttons dolls and other collectibles are just part of a merchandising mix shrewdly designed to grab youngsters and adults alike.

With the market for pop culture collectibles largely untapped and with the comic book industry priming for the big years that a second baby boom seems to promise, Colabuono`s success thus far may be just a warmup for what`s to come. Reminded that he`s found fortune while dabbling in his lifelong passion, he nodded appreciatively. ''I always tell people I`m the luckiest guy I know,'' he said.

How much his success is underpinned by luck, though, is open to conjecture. By all accounts, Colabuono is a remarkably astute businessman. In his post-college years, as an advertising salesman calling on small business accounts for the Daily Herald, he learned in record time ''to spot the difference between the sharp guys and the clowns.'' That lesson in small business adminstration stood him in excellent stead when it came time to open his first Moondog`s store.

''Gary`s always set standards for himself that were much higher than anyone else in the business,'' said Dave Kosinski, Midwest representative for Marvel Comics. ''He`s a businessman with a hobby, not a hobbyist with a business.''

Added Chris Ecker, a Moondog`s employee for 11 years, ''It`s sometimes tough to make a business of what you love. It`s easy to lose track of the business side. But the way he treats customers and the way he treats employees sets him apart.''

The business savvy he`s accumulated over the years is coupled to superb effect with a deep-rooted, all-consuming fervor for the comic book as an art form.

''He`s one of those merchants I just love,'' said Karen Johnson, manager of sales and marketing for Randhurst Shopping Center. ''He`s been fascinated by comic books all his life and has a tremendous passion for the merchandise he sells. And because of that passion, it`s easy for him to really maximize his opportunities.''

In fact, if there is any luck involved at all in the Colabuono saga, it may lie in a fortuitous draw from the gene pool.

The second of three brothers, Colabuono grew up in a working class home in Joliet. His father, a plant manager for a metalworking company, was also a cartoonist who`d spent much of his youth carefylly clipping Tarzan, Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, and Terry and the Pirates strips from the Sunday newspapers. With that kind of paternal influence, it wasn`t surprising that young Gary grew up living for comics.

''I had a sense they were writing just for me,'' Colabuono said. ''While other kids had Kool-Aid stands, I actually had a comic book stand, where I`d sell books for a nickel apiece.''

Not only did he play superheroes with his friends, preferring the role of the Incredible Hulk, but as a freshman in high school he began turning out his own comics. Written by Colabuono and drawn by a friend, these mimeographed epics featured the exploits of a certain Captain Twang, who motored to the sites of his heroics in a ''Mustwang.''

Not long thereafter, those twin concerns of 16-year-old high school boys- cars and girls-conspired to limit his interest in comic books. And later, as a journalism and advertising major at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, he devoted his time to playing pranks on a neighboring fraternity and, with somewhat less enthusiasm, training for a career as a copywriter with an ad agency.

Talked by a professor into selling rather than writing ads, Colabuono went to work as an advertising rep for the Daily Herald right out of college. In the meantime, he had married and raised some quick cash by selling the last of his childhood comic collection.

''It was June 1973 and I got $180 for those comic books,'' he said, bemused by the recollection. ''Today, they`d easily be worth $40,000 to $50,000.''

Although so successful at peddling advertising that he was promoted to ad manager, Colabuono found himself missing the hobby that had consumed him as a child. When a casual acquaintance offered to sell him a collection of 2,000 comic books gathering dust in a suburban basement, Colabuono gladly forked over the asking price: $200.

''My wife said `Are you crazy?'' he recalled. ''But I got a comic book price guide and quickly realized I`d just purchased about $5,000 worth of books for $200.''

With that happy discovery as a starting point, he began trading in comic books at weekend swap meets and flea markets, pulling in as much as $1,000 in a single weekend.

''I was becoming pretty well-known among comic book collectors in the area,'' he said, '' but my wife sure didn`t think it was a very good way to spend my free time.''

One evening in June 1977, he and a friend went out for a pizza in downtown Mt. Prospect. Happening across a little storefront shop near the train station, Colabuono was seized with a thought: It was the perfect size for a comic book store. They went down the street for the pizza, returning to the store to find a For Rent sign had been posted on the window during their dinner.

Colabuono was not one to turn his back on such an auspicious omen. Discovering he could rent the store for just $25 a month, he quickly outfitted the shop with ancient second-hand fixtures, stocking it with inventory from his flea market booth.

That first Moondog`s, named after a college-era nickname for its owner, was a success right from day one.

''We had all the comics in one place,'' Colabuono said, ''and that meant kids and teenagers didn`t have to go to several different drug stores and 7-Eleven`s to find what they wanted.''

Monte Beauchamp, editor and creative director of the avant-garde comics art publication Blab, remembers meeting Colabuono in those early days.

''The place was just a hole-in-the-wall storefront, but I found Gary to be very personable, very knowledgeable,'' he said. ''We used to sit around in the shop and talk about the artists of the `30`s who created for the Sunday papers. I figured the store was a fleeting thing and that he`d eventually go far in advertising.''

Instead, he continued to drift further afield from the profession. When a second store in Schaumberg proved to be as big a hit as the first, Colabuono`s Moondog moonlighting grabbed the attention of his superiors.

''It made them a little queasy that a guy out on the street who was supposed to be selling ads was also running ads for his own business,'' he said. ''Eventually, the management of the newspaper called me in and said,

`Work for us or run your own business: What`s it gonna be?` ''

Colabuono quit his job and plunged full-time into the stores. ''The first day I came in and discovered there was nothing for me to do,'' he remembered. ''The people I`d hired didn`t need me there, and I felt I was back in college, killing time. But that idleness made me worry, and I started looking around to see how I could make the shops run a little better.''

Characteristically, it didn`t take him long to hit on another blockbuster idea. Since the first store`s opening, he and his Moondog`s staff had purchased plastic bags to help preserve the comic books on display in the shops. What if he were to offer the same protective covers to customers?

He got on the phone to the factory, ordered a million plastic sheathe at $8 a thousand, dubbed them ComiCovers, and began selling them to collectors looking to keep their comics in mint condition.

''It revoulutionized the industry,'' he said. ''The first year alone we sold eight million at a profit of eight cents a cover.''

Now Colabuono was itching to move into the mainstream with a mass market collectibles store in a high-traffic venue. In 1985, he floated just such a trial balloon, opening a store he named Comicland in Buffalo Grove`s Plaza Verde shopping center. This time he surrounded the stock of old and new comics with baseball cards, T-shirts, posters, stuffed animals and other licenced merchandise appealing to a broader audience.

The response?

''It was like turning on a faucet,'' Colabuono said.

In short order, the Buffalo Grove store was the chain`s top-grossing outlet. He duplicated the feat the following year, opening another Comicland in Deerbrook Mall in Deerfield, the first comic shop to invade an indoor mall. His boldest move, however, was to come in 1988 when he unveiled Moondog`s Comicland in the Randhurst Shopping Center. Removing all the old collectible comics that had represented the bedrock of his merchandise mix elsewhere, he devoted the entire store to popular culture for the mass consumer.

''We thought even though we were just a mile away from the original shop, we could open a store at Randhurst selling licensed goods and entirely new merchandise,'' he recalled. ''And we were right.''

Suddenly, Colabuono`s customer base had exploded to include not just teenagers and young men but housewives, expectant mothers and older people as well. Colabuono whipped up additional shopper interest by scheduling appearances by well-known comic artists, writers and characters, including the Simpson family and Spider-Man.

All of which made Randhurst`s Johnson a very happy woman.

''He`s brought a whole different type of merchandise selection to the center,'' she said. ''And along with that, he`s brought fun. He`s a puller, a destination merchant. He creates traffic.''

Although he later sold the Buffalo Grove store, he`s since carried the successful Randhurst concept to two new locations at the Ford City Shopping Center and, last month, the Clark Street address in Lincoln Park.

This year, his six stores and mail-order business will sell a half million comic books, more than 5,000 T-shirts, and more than 70 million ComiCovers.

Wife Patty, once so skeptical, has long since come around.

''She loves it, she thinks this is great,'' said Colabuono. In addition to caring for the couple`s two children, Amanda, 10, and Kevin, 7, at the family`s Arlington Heights home, Patty Colabuono now holds down the position of corporate secretary at Moondog`s Inc. Elk Grove Village headquaters.

Gary Colabuono may have vaulted leagues ahead of the old-line hobby store owner, but he hasn`t forgotten his humble beginnings-or a certain debt to his public.

''He`s always giving back into the community from the benefits of what he`s taken,'' said Marvel`s Dave Kosinski.

One example: his support of programs to promote literacy through independently produced comic books. Two such books, ''Word Warriors'' and

''Quest for Dreams Lost,'' so impressed him that he channeled back the profits from sales of the books in his store to the Literacy Volunteers of Chicago.

Colabuono`s vision for the future?

''I`d like to have 200 stores, a national operation,'' he said. ''The collectors shops will always have a place, but the growth will be in the mass market stores.''

As he sets out on that quest, the spirit of that pudgy 11-year old kid is still very much alive.